Chapter 53 Fragrance
"Very knowledgeable? No way?" Hearing the expert say this, Liu Biao was puzzled, but he did not argue, so he continued: "Then what do you think of his technical improvement plan? Is it of practical value?"

"The specific situation still needs to be evaluated on this plan..." Expert Cao took another look at the blueprint and said to Liu Biao, "I want to take this plan back and study it."

"Whatever you want!" Liu Biao replied straightforwardly, then turned to Gao Zhiguo and said, "Director Gao, it's not easy for you to come all the way here. We have prepared lunch for you. Let's go to the guesthouse at noon and have a good talk..."

Liu Biao obviously couldn't care about any technical transformation plan at this time. How to keep next year's military orders was related to the jobs of tens of thousands of people in the factory. It was the most urgent task that he, as the factory director, had to solve!
Moreover, in Liu Biao's opinion, there are really no surprises in this year's military-to-civilian recruitment activity. Even if Xu Qiang's plan is favored by experts, he does not think that his superiors will pay attention to it. After all, Xu Qiang is not a professional technician and it is impossible for him to come up with a valuable technical transformation plan.

Nowadays, eating and drinking on public funds has become popular. Many leaders like to discuss important matters over the dinner table. Liu Biao knows that he cannot avoid these clichés, so before he learned that these superiors were coming, he had already arranged for the guesthouse to prepare. Ultimately, it was all for his job at the factory.

"Well...it's time for dinner, let's go." Gao Zhiguo glanced at his watch and said.

"Please!" Upon hearing this, Liu Biao immediately led them out of the exhibition room.

The expert named Cao who was walking behind him gently put away the technical improvement plan and put it in his briefcase...

……

After dinner in the evening, Xu Qiang came to his laboratory.

With the doors and windows opened, Xu Qiang began preparations for blending the essence.

The formulation of flavor formula is generally divided into the following steps.

First of all, we need to clarify the fragrance and aroma of the formulated essence, and use this as the goal of perfume blending.

Secondly, according to the application requirements of the fragrance, select the corresponding top note, body note and base note.

To choose a qualified fragrance, we must first determine the first impression it gives people. For example, if you smell lemon, it is a lemon-flavored fragrance, and this impression is determined by the top note.

Secondly, the raw material added to make the fragrance stronger is called "body fragrance". Body fragrance can stimulate the intensity of the smell and make people more impressed.

The last thing is the base fragrance. Qualified fragrances must maintain a stable smell. The fragrance base is used to inhibit the volatilization of the fragrance, allowing the fragrance to maintain a stable smell for a long time.

All perfumers follow the "three elements" of synthetic fragrances when blending fragrances. Through different material selection and craftsmanship, they blend fragrances of various styles and flavors to provide consumers with choices.

Xu Qiang planned to first mix a fruity scented essence. The top note he chose was octanal, a substance that is often used as a raw material for mixing fruity scented essences and is relatively easy to buy.

In many people's minds, flavors are generally extracted from natural substances, but in fact, the cost of natural flavors is very high, almost a hundred times more than the cost of synthetic raw materials, so most of the flavors we usually come into contact with are synthetic flavors.

The body fragrance is made of wood oil, which is also the raw material that Xu Qiang can buy at this stage for body fragrance.

As for the fragrance base, pine oil is still used. This substance can inhibit the volatilization of the fragrance to a certain extent and make the fragrance more lasting.

In addition, Xu Qiang added some other raw materials based on his experience in perfume making and the formulas he mastered.

As for the spice blending process, it is relatively simple.

Weigh, mix, let stand, filter...

After a set of processes, a flavor sample was finally synthesized successfully. "Xiao Qiang, did you buy apples?"

Smelling a strong fruity aroma wafting from the house, mother Zhang Fenglan walked to the door and asked.

"Mom, if you want to eat some fruit, I'll buy some for you at the factory later." Xu Qiang turned his head to look at his mother and said with a smile.

The appearance of the mother this time shows that Xu Qiang's flavor blending has been successful. As long as he follows the same method, Xu Qiang can blend more flavors of various fruits.

“Then this taste…”

"Maybe it was the fruit bought by my neighbor. Today I saw many people from our village went to the market in town." Xu Qiang said casually.

"Um..." Zhang Fenglan nodded, and then said to Xu Qiang: "You still have to work the night shift tonight, go to bed early."

"Got it." Xu Qiang responded, then picked up the things on the laboratory table.

Looking at the clear and slightly bluish apple-flavored essence in the measuring cup, Xu Qiang showed a hint of relief on his face.

However, for Xu Qiang, having only one or two flavors is not enough. If he wants to make the daily chemical products he produces more competitive, Xu Qiang also needs to formulate more types of flavors.

But if he wants to mix other types of flavors, Xu Qiang needs to buy more chemical raw materials. In addition, he also needs some special equipment.

Buying chemical raw materials is relatively easy. Xu Qiang can purchase them through Director Wang of the supply and marketing cooperative. But when it comes to chemical equipment, Xu Qiang is helpless. He cannot buy it even if he has money.

The three types of chemical equipment Xu Qiang needs most at the moment are a water purifier, a distiller and a reactor.

Water quality has a relatively large impact on chemical synthesis. Moreover, since the water quality in different places is different, there are also differences in products produced using the same formula and process. Therefore, in later generations, even in the smallest chemical workshops, water purification equipment is essential.

However, this thing is simply not available now. Even if it is available, it is a large-scale water purification device that is expensive and has serious overperformance. It can usually only be equipped by large enterprises.

As for the distiller and reactor, these two things can be made by yourself. The reactor is actually a corrosion-resistant tube that can automatically heat and stir. Considering that Xu Qiang mainly wants to use it to process daily chemical products such as shampoo, the raw materials have low corrosion degree, so it is entirely possible to make one with thin iron sheets.

The distiller is mainly used to separate materials with different boiling points and purify substances.

Many small wineries in China have stills, some of which are made of wood and are passed down from ancient times.

Ancient distiller had an important use: to distill floral water.

Volume 5 of Zhang Shinan's Travel Notes in the Southern Song Dynasty describes the use of distiller to extract flower dew among the people at that time:
"Tin is used to make a small steamer. One layer is for flowers and one layer is for incense bones. Flowers are usually more than incense. Holes are made on the side of the steamer to drain the sweat. The sweat is stored in a container. When finished, the steamer is cleaned, the flowers are removed, and the incense is soaked in the liquid."

Obviously, this distiller is similar in structure to the traditional wine distiller. Both use a steamer to steam the materials. The steam is cooled and gathered into a body, and then transported to the external storage container through the flow or special channels beside the steamer.

Relying on his memory, Xu Qiang spent nearly an hour drawing a simple blueprint of the reactor and distiller, which he planned to bring to the factory tonight.

(End of this chapter)